Accredited official statistics

Sea passenger statistics, all routes: 2020

Published 17 November 2021

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About this release

This statistical release presents final statistics on sea passengers on both international and domestic routes to and from the UK for 2020.

International passengers are those that travel on international routes. These are broken down into short sea (ferry) routes and passengers on cruises and long sea journeys.

Domestic passengers travel on domestic routes, including domestic sea crossings, river ferries and inter-island journeys.

These statistics include all vehicle drivers, their passengers and foot passengers on ferries.

Main points

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic affected both international and domestic sea passenger numbers. There was a marked decrease in sea passengers in 2020 compared to previous years.

International sea passenger numbers decreased by 66% to 7.0 million in 2020. This follows a gradually declining trend in international sea passengers from 2010 to 2019 (Chart 1).

Domestic sea passenger numbers decreased by 51% to 20.6 million in 2020. This follows a broadly stable trend in domestic sea passengers from 2010 to 2019 (Chart 1).

Chart 1: UK domestic and international sea passengers, 2010 to 2020 (SPAS0101, SPAS0201)

For international passengers in 2020, compared to 2019:

• the total number of international short sea passengers (ferry routes) decreased by 63% to 6.9 million
• cruise passengers decreased by 95% to 107,000. This was due to the cruise industry suspending operations at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020

For domestic passengers in 2020, compared to 2019:

• the total number of sea passengers on domestic routes was 20.6 million, a decrease of 51%
• the number of passengers on river ferries decreased by 48%
• inter-island passengers decreased by 53%
• domestic sea crossings decreased by 58%

Impact of the coronavirus pandemic:

This release covers the period of the government’s announcement, and implementation, of measures to limit the impact and transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). Since March 2020, measures particularly relevant to sea travel included the introduction of lockdown, self-isolation, and subsequent international travel policies. This release presents the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on international and domestic routes. It should be noted that these sea passenger statistics include tourist, leisure and business travel, as well as freight drivers accompanying cargo. Freight drivers are exempt from many of the travel restrictions the government put in place to ensure continual flow of freight.

Sea passenger statistics: 2020 publications

Breakdown of publications for current and upcoming sea passenger statistics

Infographic 1: Breakdown of content included in sea passenger statistical releases

Sea passenger statistics 2020: all routes

This statistical release presents the complete statistics on all sea passengers to and from the UK in 2020. In addition to the short sea passenger statistics previously published in February 2021, it also includes (Infographic 1):

International routes: These include all passengers travelling for pleasure on cruises and long sea journeys to and from the UK.

Domestic routes: All other short sea passenger routes, including routes between Great Britain and the Orkney and Shetland Islands, domestic river crossings and inter-island routes. These have been added to the previously published major short sea routes for a complete picture of domestic routes.

Sea passenger statistics 2021: all routes (proposed for summer 2022)

Currently, the department releases 2 annual publications for sea passenger statistics – 1 in February (on short sea routes only) and 1 in November (on all routes). The second of these releases mostly republishes the same content as the February release with the added coverage of long sea and minor domestic routes.

The department is reviewing the frequency of this statistical series and is proposing to publish one combined annual report in the summer instead of two separate releases. This is to avoid duplicating content and to improve the overall timeliness of the series. This would mean that the next release covering all routes would be in summer 2022. Monthly updates to the SPAS0107 tables will continue as usual to provide users with the most up to date information on short sea routes traffic.

We welcome any feedback from users on the proposed new timings (including any negative impact of the reduced frequency) and presentation of the statistics at sea passenger statistics.

Impact of the coronavirus pandemic on international short sea passenger routes

Overall trends compared with 2019 (SPAS0107)

In 2020, the number of short sea passengers on international routes decreased by 63% to 6.9 million compared to 18.4 million in 2019 (Chart 2).

Chart 2: International short sea passengers by month, 2019 and 2020 (SPAS0107)

Chart 3: Percentage change in international short sea passengers by month compared to 2019 (SPAS0107)

January and February 2020 passenger figures were broadly similar to those in the same months of 2019. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic started to be seen in March 2020 when international short sea passenger figures decreased 50% to 609,000, compared to March 2019 (Chart 3). This coincided with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advising against all non-essential international travel on 17 March, and later the introduction of the first nationwide lockdown on 23 March 2020. The largest year-on-year monthly fall was in April 2020, the first full month following the national lockdown, when the total number of international sea passengers were down 85% compared to the same month in 2019.

Passenger statistics include freight drivers accompanying cargo. Freight drivers were exempt from many of the international travel restrictions introduced from March onwards. DfT publishes port freight statistics, including figures for the number of road goods vehicles in PORT0201. It has not been possible to combine the port freight statistics data with the sea passenger statistics to provide a monthly breakdown of freight and non-freight passengers. This is because port freight statistics are only available at a quarterly breakdown.

Following April, sea passenger traffic recovered slowly and increased substantially in July before levelling off in August. These are usually peak months for sea passenger traffic, however, in 2020 volumes remained largely down on 2019. There is an observable peak in departures in July and arrivals in August that might coincide with departing and returning from holidays. The increase in passengers occurred alongside the introduction of the 14-day self-isolation requirement (on 8 June) and travel corridors for most countries that sea passengers travel to and from (on 10 July). Please see the timeline provided in the annex for more details.

At the end of July and throughout August, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium were removed from the travel corridor exempt list. This may have contributed to a levelling-off of passenger figures in August 2020 which saw a 69% reduction compared to August 2019. From September to November, passenger figures steadily decreased, as is usual in the autumn months. In November, there was a 51% reduction compared to the same month in 2019. This marked the smallest gap between 2020 and 2019 figures since March. December saw a slight increase in traffic but this increase was lower than usually expected for December and therefore, this month was still down 59% compared to December 2019.

Trends by country of origin and departure (SPAS0107, SPAS0108)

In 2020, passenger numbers to and from all countries with short sea routes were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Whilst travel corridor policies did not apply to the Republic of Ireland as it is part of the Common Travel Area, France, Netherlands, and Spain were included then removed from the travel corridors exempt list (requiring self-isolation for 14 days) between July and August. Whilst all 4 countries shown below saw similar decreases of around 60% over 2020 compared to 2019, the profile of passenger trends over the months within 2020 was variable.

France: annual decrease of 63%

Chart 4: International short sea passengers between the UK and France by month, 2019 and 2020

International short sea passenger traffic between the UK and France behaved in the same way as the overall monthly international trends, with a noticeable uplift in passengers in July with the introduction of travel corridors and a levelling off in August when the travel corridor with France was removed (Chart 4).

Republic of Ireland: annual decrease of 60%

Chart 5: International short sea passengers between the UK and Republic of Ireland by month, 2019 and 2020

Passenger traffic between the UK and the Republic of Ireland between January and April were similar to the trends exhibited in the overall monthly international passenger figures. However, throughout the rest of the year it did not exhibit the same trends as other countries and stayed around 70% down on 2019 throughout the summer months (Chart 5). An increase in passenger numbers throughout summer 2020 could be attributed to a usual summer peak, or an increase in confidence to travel.

Netherlands: annual decrease of 61%

Chart 6: International short sea passengers between the UK and the Netherlands by month, 2019 and 2020

International short sea passenger traffic between the UK and the Netherlands showed a similar pattern to France and overall monthly trends with a noticeable uplift of passengers in July and August with the introduction of travel corridors. Following August, and the Netherlands’ removal from the international travel corridors exempt list, passenger numbers decreased until November and saw a slight increase in December (Chart 6).

Spain: annual decrease of 62%

Chart 7: International short sea passengers between the UK and Spain by month, 2019 and 2020

Routes between the UK and Spain saw similar passenger trends to overall monthly international passenger figures between January and March.

Spain saw the largest decrease of these 4 countries for the period of April to June, around 96% down on 2019. This may be related to the type of passengers who use Spanish ferries and the division between freight and leisure passenger traffic. A large uplift in passengers was seen in July, were figures for these routes peaked for the year. Unlike international routes with other countries, passenger traffic did not see a further increase in August after the removal of Spain from the travel corridors, and continued to decline for the rest of 2020 (Chart 7). Because passenger traffic to and from Spain is highly seasonal and usually sees a large decrease of passengers in November, volumes for November and December 2020 were much closer to 2019.

Related statistics on international travel

Further statistics relating to passenger arrivals since the COVID-19 outbreak are published quarterly by the Home Office. This release used Border and Immigration Transactions (BITD) data to compare the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on international passenger arrivals across air, sea and rail in 2020.

Although Home Office statistics exclude travel from the Common Travel Area (an open borders area comprising the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands), while DfT sea passenger statistics do not, the percentage changes detailed in this sea passenger statistical release are in line with trends seen in the Home Office statistics. Home Office data shows that, on the whole, international travel by sea to the UK was relatively less reduced than air and rail in 2020. This might be linked to the proportion of maritime freight within the overall sea passenger traffic.

International short sea passengers, trends by port and port group (SPAS0101)

Map 1: UK international short sea passengers by port group in 2020 and change from 2019 (SPAS0101)

In 2020, the number of international short sea passengers decreased by 63% to 6.9 million, compared to 18.4 million in 2019.

This decrease is linked to the coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions across 2020. Thames and Kent reported the smallest decrease of passengers, a 60% decrease to 4.4 million passengers in 2020. The South Coast port group reported the largest decrease of passengers, a 74% decrease to 0.7 million in 2020. The East and West Coast port groups also experienced decreased international passenger numbers of 65% and 63% respectively compared to 2019 (Map 1).

In 2020, nearly all ports saw a decrease in passenger numbers compared to 2019. Dover, the port with the largest international short sea passenger numbers, decreased by 60% from 10.9 million in 2019 to 4.3 million in 2020. Felixstowe saw a 5% increase in passengers in 2020 compared to 2019 (Chart 8). Traffic into Felixstowe was likely unaffected because international sea routes at Felixstowe are all freight and therefore not impacted by international travel restrictions for leisure passengers.

Of the ports with at least 100 international short sea passengers in 2020 (Chart 8):

• London (Thames and Kent port group) had 57% less passengers than in 2019
• Dover (Thames and Kent port group) had 60% less passengers than in 2019
• Newhaven (South Coast port group) had 65% less passengers than in 2019
• Portsmouth (South Coast port group) had 73% less passengers than in 2019
• Poole (South Coast port group) had 91% less passengers than in 2019
• Plymouth (South Coast port group) had 82% less passengers than in 2019
• Milford Haven (West Coast port group) had 72% less passengers than in 2019
• Fishguard (West Coast port group) had 69% less passengers than in 2019
• Holyhead (West Coast port group) had 57% less passengers than in 2019
• Liverpool (West Coast port group) had 49% less passengers than in 2019
• Tyne (East Coast port group) had 81% less passengers than in 2019
• Hull (East Coast port group) had 73% less passengers than in 2019
• Grimsby and Immingham (East Coast port group) had 11% less passengers than in 2019
• Felixstowe (East Coast port group) had 5% more passengers than in 2019
• Harwich (East Coast port group) had 50% less passengers than in 2019

Chart 8: UK international short sea passengers by ports and port group, percentage change in 2020 compared to 2019 (SPAS0101)

Statistics on international short sea passengers by port group can be found in data table (SPAS0101).

Top 5 international short sea routes (SPAS0102)

Passenger numbers on most routes were affected by the coronavirus pandemic and saw large decreases in numbers compared to 2019. The top 5 routes accounted for 84% of all international short sea passengers in 2020.

In 2020, the Dover-Calais route, historically the busiest, accounted for around 48% of the annual international short sea passenger traffic. In 2020, 3.3 million passengers travelled on this route, a 62% decline on 2019 and 68% lower than in 2010 (Map 2). On the second largest route, Dover-Dunkirk, passenger numbers decreased 53% to 1.1 million in 2020. The Dublin-Holyhead route reported 0.8 million passengers in 2020, a 57% decrease from 2019. The Portsmouth-Caen route decreased 69% compared to 2019 and reported similar passenger numbers as the Harwich-Hook of Holland route (0.3 million).

Passenger numbers on some routes were less affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Compared to 2019, passenger numbers at the Harwich-Rotterdam route decreased 18%, the Grimsby and Immingham-Hook of Holland route decreased 4%, and the Felixstowe-Vlaardingen route increased 5%. These 3 routes carried only freight passengers.

Map 2: Top 5 international short sea routes by number of passengers (millions) in 2020 and change from 2019 (SPAS0102)

Detailed statistics on international short sea passengers by route can be found in data table (SPAS0102).

International short sea passengers and Channel Tunnel passengers

International short sea passengers peaked in 1994 at 36.7 million, the same year the Channel Tunnel opened. Channel Tunnel passenger figures increased rapidly between 1994 and 1998 and this was followed by a few years of a slow decline. From 2010, passenger numbers gradually increased until 2019. International short sea passengers decreased between 1994 and 2019. Channel tunnel figures have been higher than international short sea passengers since 2015.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic can also be seen in the Channel Tunnel passenger figures. In 2020, 8.3 million passengers travelled via the Channel Tunnel, a 62% decrease compared to 2019. In 2020, passenger numbers on international short sea routes were lower than those through the Channel Tunnel for the fifth consecutive year, and the sixth time since the Tunnel opened (Chart 9).

Chart 9: International short sea passengers and Channel Tunnel passengers, 1990 to 2020 (SPAS0101)

Channel Tunnel, including Eurotunnel and Eurostar, figures are supplied to the Department for Transport by Office of Rail and Road.

Cruise and long sea passengers

Definitions

Cruise passenger figures include all passengers on international cruise journeys who start and finish their cruise journey at a UK port as well as cruises between a UK port and a European or Mediterranean port. Like other sea passengers, cruise passengers are included at both departure and arrival if their journey begins and ends at a UK seaport. Transit passengers, who do not embark or disembark from a UK port, are not included in these figures.

Long sea voyage passengers are those travelling on one-way scheduled voyages to and from ports outside Europe and Mediterranean.

Both cruise and long sea passengers saw sharp decreases in 2020 which are related to the effect of measures to limit the impact and transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The number of cruise passengers fell by 95% in 2020. Before this, cruise passengers steadily increased overall from 2000 to 2019 (Chart 10).

In 2020, the number of long sea passengers decreased by 85% compared to 2019. Before this. the number of long sea passengers between 2000 and 2019 varied greatly each year (ranging from -33% to +47% change in passengers each year), in part because operators can use these trips to reposition vessels around the world as needed (Chart 10).

Chart 10: Cruise and long sea passengers, 2000 to 2020 (SPAS0101)

Passengers on cruises

From April 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were no cruises departing from UK ports, and this continued for the rest of the year. All cruises stopped departing UK ports after 23 March 2020. The only cruise passengers after this were those arriving back from cruises that had already departed. This was due to Foreign Office advice against cruise travel as well as wider government advice and requirements restricting international leisure travel. International cruises did not restart until August 2021 following changes to Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office advice announced on 28 July 2021.

Cruise passenger numbers decreased by 95% to 107,000 in 2020 from 2.2 million in 2019.

Of these 107,000 cruise passengers, 80,000 (75%) passed through Southampton and 11,000 (10%) through Dover.

While cruise passengers through Harwich were already declining prior to 2020, the impact of the pandemic meant that the number of cruise passengers through this port dropped to zero in 2020.

An additional 15,000 cruise passengers (14%) passed through ports other than Southampton and Dover.

Passengers on long sea voyages

There are usually no long sea voyages in February and March from UK ports and due to the disruptions associated with the pandemic coming into effect from 23 March 2020, there were no long sea passengers from UK ports after January 2020.

There were 11,000 long sea passengers in 2020, compared to 75,000 passengers in 2019, corresponding to an 85% decrease.

Detailed statistics on cruise and long sea passengers by port group can be found in the data table SPAS0101.

Sea passengers on all domestic routes

Definitions

Inter-island: Covers routes between the mainland and UK islands, such as Isle of Skye and the Isle of Wight. It also covers internal ferry routes on lochs such as Strangford to Portaferry in Northern Ireland.

River ferries: Figures for river ferries are collected annually from the operators. Routes are generally included in this statistical release when the passenger km figure is greater than 500 passenger kms. Most of the river ferry passengers are on journeys made along the River Thames. See the Technical Note for a breakdown of the routes that are included.

Major domestic routes (short sea): includes all routes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Minor domestic routes (short sea): all other short sea passenger routes including routes between Great Britain and Orkney and Shetland Islands.

The total number of sea passengers on domestic routes comprises passengers on domestic sea crossings, inter-island domestic routes and river ferries.

Passenger numbers on most domestic routes were affected by the coronavirus pandemic and saw large decreases in numbers compared to 2019. The total number of sea passengers on domestic routes in 2020 saw a decrease of 51% to 20.6 million, compared to 42.0 million in 2019. This was driven by large drops in passengers across all route types in 2020.

Of this total, 10.1 million (49%) were river ferry passengers and 9.1 million (44%) were inter-island passengers. The remaining 1.5 million (7%) were domestic sea crossings. 84% of passengers on domestic sea crossings travelled on major domestic routes, with the remaining 16% of passengers travelling on minor domestic routes. These proportions are broadly consistent with previous years even though the number of passengers were much lower in 2020.

The number of passengers on inter-island journeys remained stable (-2% to +4% change in passengers each year) from 2010 to 2019 but saw a large decrease (-53%) from 19.3 million passengers in 2019 to 9.1 million in 2020.

Similarly, the number of passengers undertaking domestic sea crossings were stable (-2% to +3% change in passengers each year) from 2010 to 2019 with a large reduction (-58%) from 3.5 million passengers in 2019 to 1.5 million in 2020 (Chart 11).

Chart 11: UK domestic sea passengers by type of route, 2010 to 2020 (SPAS0201)

Passengers on river ferries

Passenger numbers on river ferries decreased by 48%, to 10.1 million passengers in 2020 from 19.2 million passengers in 2019.

Passengers on inter-island domestic routes

Passenger numbers on inter-island domestic routes decreased 53% to 9.1 million passengers in 2020 from 19.3 million passengers in 2019.

There were 4.5 million passengers between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in 2020, a decrease of 49% compared to 2019.

Passengers on Scottish inter-island routes decreased to 3.8 million in 2020 from 8.6 million in 2019, a decrease of 55%. See the Transport Scotland Water Transport statistics, (PDF, 1,246KB) for further information, including figures for individual routes.

Passengers on all other inter-island routes decreased to 798,000 in 2020 from 2.1 million in 2019, a decrease of 62%.

As with passenger numbers on other domestic and international routes, the reduction in passenger numbers are associated with the disruption to travel and maritime operations due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Impact of the coronavirus pandemic on major domestic routes (SPAS0201)

Overall trends compared to 2019

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic can also be seen in sea passenger figures on major domestic routes. In 2020, the number of short sea passengers on major domestic routes decreased by 57% to 1.2 million, compared to 2.8 million in 2019.

Chart 12: Major domestic short sea passengers by month, 2019 and 2020

Chart 13: Percentage change in major domestic short sea passengers by month compared to 2019

Major domestic short sea passenger figures for January and February 2020 were broadly similar to those in the same months of 2019. Compared to international sea passengers, domestic passenger figures fell less dramatically in March 2020, with a 24% reduction on March 2019. The impact of national lockdown could be seen in April when passenger figures decreased to 25,000, down 90% on April 2019 figures. Major domestic sea passenger figures continued to be much lower than 2019 figures throughout the year (Chart 12).

From May until August, there was a steady increase in sea passengers, with the gap with major domestic short sea passenger figures in the previous year getting smaller each month. Overall, the summer period, especially in August, was less depressed for major domestic short sea passenger traffic than international short sea passenger traffic. This could suggest that people switched to more domestic summer holidays than usual (see box below).

Major domestic sea passenger figures in September were down 45% compared to the same month in 2019, this was the smallest gap between 2020 monthly passenger figures and passenger figures in the previous year (chart 13). Passenger figures levelled off from October, with national restrictions introduced across the UK in November.

December saw a slight increase in passenger figures, as is usual for that time of year. However, across both November and December 2020 passenger figures remained 51% lower than the same months in 2019. Although many travel restrictions were related to international travel, sea passengers on major domestic routes saw a large drop in 2020. This may be related to other factors during the coronavirus pandemic such as reduced confidence and reduced appetite to travel.

Related statistics

For more information regarding research into travel behaviour during the lockdown period and intentions to travel in the future, please see the Department for Transports’ All Change Travel Tracker.

Waves 1 to 3 present analysis and headline findings from a UK-wide survey commissioned by the Department for Transport and undertaken during May to June (wave 1), July to August (wave 2) and November to December (wave 3) 2020. In wave 3, roughly 11% of those surveyed expected to travel abroad within 3 months of restrictions lifting.

Trends by major domestic routes (short sea)

Map 3: Top 5 UK major domestic short sea routes in 2020 by number of passengers (millions) and change from 2019 (SPAS0201)

Note on 2020 domestic short sea traffic to the Isle of Man

From 9am Monday 23 March 2020, the Isle of Man closed borders to all passenger traffic except for essential key workers and the repatriation of residents. On 20 July 2020 the border restriction was eased slightly to allow residents to travel off island for non-essential purposes but with a requirement to self-isolate for 14 days upon return.

This has meant that there has been no visitor traffic, except allowances for residents, to the island at all since March 2020.

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was linked to a 57% decrease in passengers, to 1.2 million, travelling on domestic short sea routes.

Domestic sea crossings from Great Britain to Northern Ireland saw a 47% decrease compared to 2019. Cairnryan-Belfast is consistently the busiest domestic short sea route. In 2020, this route saw 0.6 million passengers, a decrease of 53% on 2019. Poole-Jersey/Guernsey entered the top 5 with 40,000 passengers travelling in 2020, a decrease of 79% compared to 2019. This takes the place of Liverpool-Douglas (Isle of Man) which saw the largest reduction in domestic passengers in 2020, a 98% decrease on 2019. Heysham-Douglas also saw a large decrease compared to 2019 of 77%, reporting 0.06 million passengers (map 3, chart 14).

Cairnryan-Larne saw a 48% decrease from 2019, with a similar amount of passengers to the Liverpool-Belfast route of 0.2 million passengers. However, operators report that due to lockdown restrictions in the Republic of Ireland that differ from the UK, passengers previously travelling on routes such as Holyhead-Dublin, have switched to Liverpool-Belfast. This might explain the small decrease, compared to other routes, it experienced in 2020 (-19%).

Chart 14: Top 5 busiest major domestic sea crossing routes, 2010 to 2020 (SPAS0201)

Detailed statistics on domestic sea passengers can be found in data table SPAS0201.

Annex: timeline of coronavirus events affecting sea travel

The following table presents a timeline of coronavirus events affecting sea travel since March 2020. Up-to-date information on international travel requirements and border measures for each UK nation can be found at the following links:

• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland

Coronavirus Events Affecting Sea Travel	Date of Introduction	Month of Introduction
Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised against all non-essential international travel	17/03/2020	March
UK lockdown applied	23/03/2020	March
Persons travelling to the UK from outside the Common Travel Area (UK, Ireland and Crown Dependencies) required to self-isolate for 14 days	08/06/2020	June
Travel corridors introduced, allowing travel into the UK from countries on an exempt list without the need to self-isolate. France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, which usually make up the majority of ‘Other EU’ short sea passenger volumes, were originally included in the exempt list.	10/07/2020	July
Spain removed from exempt list (i.e. no longer part of travel corridors and self-isolation required) (UK)	26/07/2020	July
Belgium removed from exempt list (England)	03/08/2020	August
Belgium removed from exempt list (Wales)	06/08/2020	August
Belgium removed from exempt list (Scotland & Northern Ireland)	08/08/2020	August
France and Netherlands removed from exempt list (UK)	15/08/2020	August
Denmark removed from exempt list (UK)	26/09/2020	September
Denmark added to exempt list (UK)	25/10/2020	October
England lockdown applied	05/11/2020	November
Denmark removed from exempt list (UK)	06/11/2020	November
England lockdown removed	02/12/2020	December
Self-isolation period on arrival changed from 14 days to 10 days (Wales)	10/12/2020	December
Self-isolation period on arrival changed from 14 days to 10 days (UK)	14/12/2020	December
Test to release, to shorten the self-isolation period for international arrivals, was introduced	15/12/2020	December
Varying Christmas travel guidelines across the UK	25/12/2020	December

Related statistics

These sea passenger statistics do not provide information about the individuals travelling through UK ports. Additional information on the origin of passengers is available from the ONS International Passenger Survey, monthly figures.

The ONS International Passenger Survey publish overseas residents’ visits to the UK by month with a breakdown of geographical areas (for example, EU15 including all countries that joined the EU prior to 2004), as well as information on UK residents visits abroad and where their destination is, again segmented using the same geographical areas. This survey also produces a table on the earnings in the UK and expenditure abroad.

The International Passenger Survey was suspended from 16 March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. For more detail about the creation of new estimates using alternative data sources please see: The impact of suspending the International Passenger Survey on UK Trade and Overseas Travel and Tourism statistics.

Strengths and weaknesses of the data

The data for international and domestic short sea passengers is collected from ferry operators and is validated on a monthly basis. At the end of the reference year, the annual data is then validated for a final time for this publication. The proportional allocation of passengers between some routes is occasionally estimated.

Validation processes focus on comparing reference periods with the same period in the previous year, to allow for seasonal differences. Anomalies are followed up with the operators.

Passengers are counted in both directions. It is not possible to distinguish passengers travelling by foot from those in vehicles or those travelling as the driver of a goods vehicle. Data on the number of vehicles travelling through sea ports can be found in the port freight statistics series.

Data collection is limited to vessels over 100 gross tonnes and so does not include services operated by small boats.

International figures include passengers on routes beginning or ending in Great Britain or Northern Ireland. Routes with foreign countries beginning or ending in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man are not included.

Some passengers travel between Great Britain and St Malo in France by going to the Channel Islands on one vessel and then transferring to another. From 2016 onwards, these passenger numbers are attributed to the domestic route with the Channel Islands rather than the direct international route. Please see the sea passengers notes and guidance for more details.

Changes to sea passengers statistics

In 2018, the department carried out a review of the content of the annual sea passenger statistics, including the data tables published as part of this release.

Following a consultation with users, the decision was made to discontinue a number of the previously published data tables where there was little user interest or the information included was already covered in other tables.

Please refer to the User Feedback Summary for further information, including a list of retained and discontinued tables.

Background information

We would welcome any feedback on these statistics by email. We will attempt to address any comments in a subsequent release.

The data tables for sea passenger statistics are available.

Provisional summary totals for international sea passenger traffic are released monthly in SPAS0107.

Full guidance on the methods used in the publication of these releases, and the quality of the data, and known users and uses of the statistics are available.

The sea passenger statistics are National Statistics. This means they are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs.

These statistics were designated as National Statistics in February 2013.

Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release are available.

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Sea passenger statistics

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